ANN ARBOR, MI - Restaurant owner Pem Sherpa is bringing Ann Arbor the ethnic food he once enjoyed every day as a tour guide on the landscapes surrounding Mount Everest.

Everest Sherpa Restaurant is now open at 2803 Oak Valley Drive, in the former Lotus Thai restaurant space near Target on Ann Arbor's south side.

The owners of Lotus Thai were retiring, and he had been searching for a fitting location to offer a more formal dining experience, Sherpa said.

"We've been looking for a place to have a small Nepali restaurant, which is similar to Indian food," he said.

Sherpa was part of a team that brought the Everest Momo food cart to the popular downtown lunch destination Mark's Carts, near Downtown Home & Garden. He said a friend is taking over operations there so he can focus on his first sit-down restaurant.

The restaurant hosted a grand opening event the evening of Thursday, Aug. 31, gathering more than 45 friends and family members to celebrate and test restaurant operations.

"We had a great time," Sherpa said. "It was good practice for us, we are still learning."

Starting a restaurant is far cry from his days as a guide for adventurers seeking to climb Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, or travelers trekking through Tibet and Bhutan.

But thanks to that experience, when it came to creating a restaurant menu, Sherpa knew just what he wanted to offer the Ann Arbor food scene.

His guided tours inspired the lunch and dinner menus at Everest Sherpa with items like the dal bhat, a traditional Nepali platter made up of rice and lentil soup, served with vegetables and naan break.

"All the Everest climbers and trekkers, they eat it every day in the country," Sherpa said.

The dal bhat is available with or without protein at $9.99 or $10.99.

Appetizers include the Nepalese vegetable dumplings known as momos for $6.99 and shrimp pakora - with the shellfish fried in chickpea flour and served with homemade tamarind and mint sauces - also at $6.99.

Dinner items include a Sherpa stew, served with Tibetan bread, and Himalayan curries prepared with tomatoes, onion sauce and traditional spices.